6 Eye Makeup Tips for Hooded Eyes

In an attempt to provide tips to those with different features than I have, I’ve asked my friend Courtney from Phyrra.net to share her best makeup tips for hooded eyes. Enjoy, and be sure to show her love!

Despite having hooded eyes my entire life, I didn’t really figure out how to apply flattering and long lasting makeup to them until about 10 years ago. Applying makeup for hooded eyes can be a bit daunting, but not impossible!

How to Tell if You Have Hooded Eyes

Hooded eyes come in different shapes, which can make it difficult for people to tell they have hooded eyes.

Do you have a crease? If not, and your lid has a flat appearance, then you probably have monolids.

If you do have a crease, is your crease obscured by a layer of skin? If yes, then congrats, you have hooded eyes!

Celebrities With Hooded Eyes

As I mentioned before, hooded eyes come in different shapes. If your eyes don’t look exactly like mine, they can still be hooded. Some other examples of celebrities with hooded eyes include Blake Lively, Jennifer Lawrence, Taylor Swift, Claudia Schiffer, Kate Hudson, and Emma Stone.

Tip 1: Put Your Makeup On With Your Eyes Open

One of the most effective eye makeup tips for hooded eyes is to put your makeup on with your eyes open while you’re looking into the mirror. This will show you how high to blend your deeper “crease” color upwards, since your crease is hidden by skin. This way, you can still add visible dimension.

Tip 2: Use Primer & Smudge-proof Products

With hooded eyes, skin-on-skin contact is common and can cause product smudging or transfer. It’s essential to use eye primer and choose smudge-proof mascara and eyeliner. If I put on eyeshadow without eyeshadow primer, it’s gone in 20 minutes or less because of how my hooded eye area rubs against each other and wears it away. To prevent this I use an eye primer and a setting powder over top before applying shadow. Setting any pencil eyeliner with a powder is also a great idea to keep it from transfering.

Miranda’s Tip: Learn about the difference between eyeshadow primer and base, plus check out my favorite eyeshadow primers in this post.

Tip 3: Use Eyelid Tape

The difference between a hooded eyelid with eyelid tape (left) and its natural appearance (right).

You can fake a crease with eyelid tape! This can dramatically change your appearance. In the photo above you can see what my eyes look like with one side with eyelid tape and the other side is natural. My style of hooded eyes make some of my mobile lid visible without eyelid tape, but with it you can see it all.

Tip 4: Tightline to Save Lid Space

With hooded eyes comes limited mobile lid space. If you want to maximize your lid area for shadow, you can still add definition with liner without taking up space by tightlining. You can learn all about tightlining and drugstore eyeliners to use in this post. Essentially, tightlining consists of applying liner to the upper waterline (under your lashes). You can also smudge black eyeshadow through the roots of your upper lashes to fill in any bare areas.

Tip 5: Use Smaller Brushes

Being precise with eyeshadow application is essential to making the most of your hooded eyes. I use the Sigma E36 to define my crease, the Sigma E21 to apply highlight at the inner corner or under the brows, the Sigma E25 to blend out colors, the Bdellium 787 for a wash of color all over, the Goss 27S for the lower lid, and the Urban Decay Moondust brush to pack color on the lid.

Miranda’s Tip: My favorite place to find affordable and high-quality brushes is BH Cosmetics. They offer brush sets for your entire makeup routine or find single brushes for under $10, all cruelty-free. Check out Courtney’s picks first to see which kind of brushes to look for!

Tip 6: Use an Eye-Brightening Liner

While I love to line the rim of my eyes in black, it can often make hooded eyes like mine look smaller to do that. Choosing a white, cream, or off-white liner on the lower waterline will help brighten the eyes and help widen them for a more awake look.

Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual

If you’re looking for more makeup tips and tricks for hooded eyes, my Hooded Eyes Makeup Manual includes all of what I’ve learned in the past decade. I use generic color descriptions in the book to encourage you to shop your stash and use up the makeup you already own rather than run out to buy a new palette.